Where to start?

Hi,

I am working on a new website for a car dealership. Usually I use Joomla CMS and adjust it to my needs. Actually my days as a web developer are long gone. I'm a 3D animator these days. Anyway. I stumbled over Grav CMS and flat-file cms and I love the concept. Or at least what I understand from it. But I definietly want to get into it a little more again.

But, I don't really understand the relationship between all the things like PHP, Themes, Twig, Bootstrap, CLI, and so on. Maybe somebody can enlighten me.

What I ultimately want to do is to use any HTML/CSS template and turn it into a GRAV CMS. Is that even possible?

So I need PHP and a webserver. It seems like many packages have to be installed over a CLI. Do I need a virtual server to be able to do that? I find it so confusing to install something even under windows. I guess I need Linux and some good knowledge of terminal commands, right?

Then let's say I would want to create my own theme, it seems like I have to use Twig. I don't even know what a template engine is. Of course there's a documentation, but I w ould appreciate a quick start guide or so.

Is Twig and Bootstrap the same thing? Just different? Or are they totally different things?

I mean, I know there is a documentation for all those elements. But I'm actually a little bummed out. At first Grav seemed to be a lot easier that how I experience it right now. There seems to be a big learning curve which makes me think about going back to Joomla.

I just need a short overview over the different tools/technicques to learn how everything works together.

Appreciate any help!

Thanks!
Ben

Honestly the best place to start is in the docs. I put a lot of effort into writing docs to explain these very things...

Start at the beginning with What is Grav? and work your way through the Basics section and the Content section. Then if you are feeling confident, move on to the Themes and Plugins sections.

You might also find this blog post on Traditional CMS Platforms and Grav interesting and insightful.

Feel free to ask any further questions here or on our Gitter.im chat room

If using windows you can use WAMP to run Grav.

Twig is a php templating engine. Bootstrap is a responsive css/javascript framework that contains pre-written css classes and javascript functions to simplify the creation of a responsive web site. (http://www.awwwards.com/what-are-frameworks-22-best-responsive-css-frameworks-for-web-design.html)

Bootstrap is not required to use Grav. Markdown, PHP and TWIG are required to create your own theme from scratch.

If you know Joomla then Grav should be a snap. I am still having problems understanding how Joomla works but got a Grav site up and running in a matter of hours.

Like any new CMS, there is a learning curve. I am still in turn 1 with Grav but I like what I have learned so far.

This forum is great, the members are very helpful. I am sure you will be able to get any help you need moving forward..

♪ I agree

Grav is a fantastic tool in terms of efficiency and learning curv
Forum is great also

It's definitly worth trying hard
Good luck ☆

Where to start learning the theme

There is a theme tutorial in the docs. It covers some of the essential basics in theme development. Other than that my best advice is to download some of the themes/skeletons and go through them yourself. Theming in Grav is pretty simple, simpler than most platforms actually and you will see how things are done by just inspecting how the pages extend a common base (usually partials/base.html.twig) and go from there.

Thanks for pointing med in direction